Elizabeth Dole

Elizabeth Dole (29 July 1936-) was the US Secretary of Transportation from 7 February 1983 to 30 September 1987 (succeeding Andrew L. Lewis Jr. and preceding James H. Burnley IV), US Secretary of Labor from 25 January 1989 to 23 November 1990 (succeeding Ann McLaughlin Korologos and preceding Lynn Morley Martin), and Senator from North Carolina (R) from 3 January 2003 to 3 January 2009 (succeeding Jesse Helms and preceding Kay Hagan). She was the wife of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

Biography
Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford was born in Salisbury, North Carolina on 29 July 1936, and she graduated from Duke University in 1958 with a degree in political science. Dole was affiliated with the Democratic Party while she was young, working on John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960 before working on Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 campaign. From 1969 to 1973, she worked for President Richard Nixon as deputy assistant for consumer affairs, and Virginia Knauer was her boss. She introducer her to Bob Dole in 1972, and they went on to marry. From 1973 to 1979, Dole served as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, and she campaigned for her husband's vice-presidential bid in 1976 before supporting her husband's 1980 presidential campaign. From 1981 to 1983, she worked as Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, and Ronald Reagan appointed her as Secretary of Transportation in 1983. As the US Coast Guard was subordinated to the Department of Transportation at the time, she was the first woman to lead a branch of the military. She was nominally opposed to abortion, but the right-wing faction of the Republican Party saw her as an aggressive feminist.

From 1989 to 1990, Dole briefly served as Secretary of Labor under President George H.W. Bush, and she later served as President of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1999. In 2000, she attempted to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States, but she dropped out of the election before the primaries due to inadequate fundraising. She was seen as a frontrunner for the vice presidential nomination, but Bush instead nominated Dick Cheney, the man who he had tasked with finding possible running mates for him. In 2001, she sought election to the US Senate from her home state of North Carolina, and she won the retired Jesse Helms' seat in 2002. Her voting record was more conservative than her husband, but less than Helms, and she attempted to reform house financing, to authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy, and to prevent any military bases in North Carolina from being closed down. In 2009, she was defeated for re-election by Democratitc Party challenger Kay Hagan, who won 52.7% of the vote.